(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to caps for bottles or jars, particularly to a cap having holes therein for dispensing powders or the like, and having an integral closure, for blocking the holes when not in use.
(2) Prior Art
There are numerous known plastic container caps having holes therein for dispensing powders, crystalline substances, flakes and other fluent materials, many such caps having closures for selectively blocking the holes. One known prior art cap, manufactured by C. F. Sauer Company, has a top surface provided with a raised circular platform to which a closure is attached by means of a continuous "living" hinge. The raised platform design may contribute to cap strength; it also enables one to get a fingernail or implement under the closure in order to open it. It has been found, however, that generic plastic bottles with the described prior caps assembled thereon do not stack properly. The cap's raised platform and closure are taller than the bottom depression of a standard bottle, so that the outer peripheries of the cap and the next higher bottle bottom cannot touch. Rather, contact is primarily between the cap closure and the bottom of the next higher bottle, resulting in undesirable instability. The manufacturer therefore produces a special bottle for this cap characterized by a deeper than usual depression in its bottom. Special manufacturing techniques are required to form a deep depression--the molding die may for example require a moving bottom plug, at an increased cost of over five thousand dollars per mold.
Thus, it is a primary object of this invention to provide the industry with a dispensing cap which, when applied to generic plastic bottles, results in an assembly capable of being stacked safely.
Another object is to reduce the total price of a bottle-and-cap assembly by providing a cap useable on inexpensive, generic bottles.
These objects are satisfied by a plastic cap having dispensing holes therein and a closure for covering the holes, the closure being connected to the cap by means of a continuous hinge integral with the cap and the closure, characterized in that the bottom surface of the closure is coplanar with the upper surface of the cap when the closure is shut. With a cap thickness of about 0.060 inch, the top of the cap lies well below the bottom depression in the next higher bottle in a stack.
Another advantage of the invention incident to this new construction is that somewhat less material is required in manufacturing the cap, with resultant cost savings.